Reflection is a powerful act, a mirror held up to both our individual lives and the collective consciousness we all share. In times of great societal change, such as an election, the collective mind reveals itself through patterns and events that seem ordinary but carry deeper meaning. These moments of feedback—subtle yet profound—offer insights into the state of our shared reality. The recent election was more than a clash of political ideologies; it was a barometer for the health of our collective mind, exposing cracks in how we navigate time, trust, and the familiar.
As someone deeply attuned to the collective, I’ve come to recognize situational feedback as a form of communication from this larger consciousness. In the days surrounding the election, I encountered three individuals whose confusion and struggles mirrored the collective’s disorientation. These experiences, though personal, hold universal truths about the state of our society. My aim here is not just to share these reflections but to invite others to engage with the collective mind, moving from reactive damage control to proactive cultivation of shared understanding. (*)
I have always been very reflective, and what is the very nature of reflection? Feedback. The results of the election have been hard to digest, not just for myself but for many. I thought this election would indicate if we were ill, if we are sick in some way, or are we healthy, because during this US election there was more at stake than a difference of opinion this time, and it showed us our true colors.
How Feedback Occurs
Because I am aware of the collective mind, it communicates to me situationally in events in my life that I can only describe as manifestations of consciousness. I will use events near the election to illustrate this manifestation, and you can be the judge. But really what I want to accomplish with this article, is not to prove myself or prove these manifestations exist, but to provide a template for others to be feedback for the collective, so we are not always doing damage control, but actually cultivating a relationship with the collective mind. I can’t be the only one this happens too, and I would have loved to have someone explain all this to me; and more people to share the responsibility.
The Situational Manifestation
So, while I work at an Optometrist’s office as an Optician, I can tell you to have these situations arise happens occasionally, but not often. But during a time period I correlate with the election I had three patients that came into the office, that had a rare level of confusion. Of course, to protect privacy I’ve concealed their genders and certain details.
Patient 1 had purchased lenses for a frame they already had. Patient 1 had come in once after their lenses were ready, without the frame saying they wanted to purchase a new frame for the already cut lenses. We looked into it, and they didn’t like the color option. They came back again but with the wrong frame, and asked why we had sold them that frame, that they had never liked it, a frame they had purchased many years ago. After much confusion, and explaining the options, they went home and got the right frame, and we put in the new lenses.
Patient 2 was there, and by all accounts could not follow the directions during the pretesting. We asked them to sit and wait for pictures, but they couldn’t do that. As they were talking to us, they saw the doctor come out for something and go back into an exam room, they exclaimed that they saw the doctor and followed them. The door was shut, and they went so far as to open it and try to go in. They realized the doctor was busy and came back out; and we repeated many times they needed to wait.
After that day, I actually started thinking about patient 3 and mentioned to someone we hadn’t seen them in a long time. The person I was talking to said they was probably in a nursing home by now as we had noticed some severe issues with them being alone, and had to track someone down to help them go thru a process at a different facility.
It was a particularly charged atmosphere when they came in, looking for the post office. We were all lost in thought and the office was very quiet. We told them we weren't the post office, and the one nearby that was located inside a store had gone out of business. They went on and on, and we went in circles, about where they could go, and where the post offices are not. They pulled out an (something), and talked about how the bank wasn’t the post office. They took the (something) and thumbed thru it and put it back into the envelope. That is when I suggested to my manager, we call someone. They said I could go ahead. I asked him if they would like someone to help them, someone from the city. They said they would like help; they wanted help to get into the (empty) building and get to the post office. I went ahead and called someone they knew and informed about them walking around with (something) and looking for a post office.
After about an hour, of them hauntingly talking about the familiar, help arrived. We have always known they had issues, but when we realized if we had said we were the post office and to hand us the (something), and they probably would have, we knew we had to call someone.
A Breakdown of the Manifestation of the Collective Mind
What do these three patients say about the collective mind. Patient 1 could not tell the difference between, future, past and present choices. Patient 2 could not understand or trust conventional structures of reality enough to adhere to their path thru the event of the moment. Patient 3 was only navigating to familiar places, and when the familiar changed, struggled to cope. Was willing to do anything, including breaking into an empty building, to find and keep the familiar.
My Reflections
Our Collective mind is in crisis. This manifestation paints a picture of where we are right now. We cannot navigate to the familiar, the familiar is gone, that is no longer an option. The familiar will not save us, like patient 3 needed. We cannot abandon social structures out of distrust, we risk losing so much, and events fall apart, like for patient 2. Like Patient 1 we must distinguish our choices from the past, present and future, and understand the choice of today and learn to navigate the future.
Does not matter if we are republican, democrat, or independent: we all lost the election by not navigating our future correctly. In every group we have the above problems manifesting in different ways. Each combo of navigational problems for each group of people is setting our country adrift. Republicans won, not because they are going anywhere, they are stuck trying to get into an empty building clinging to the familiar, but because their belief in there own familiar social structures are so strong.
I don’t know if I can get across the gravity of society not understanding or cultivating the collective mind. There are influences, that left unchecked can cause great harm. Not only that, but if we lose our sense of direction, our sense of place and time, it will cause a sense of existential drift that could be our undoing. Social structures alone cannot save us, but neither can navigation without the grounding of social/governmental/conventional structures as well. We cannot go back, we must be cognitive enough to distinguish the choices of the past, present and the future. Neither can we navigate by past or future choices and confuse them with now but must be present in the moment and know the choices in front of us.
Conclusion
So, this is what feedback from the collective looks like, and this is what we do with spontaneous eruptions of consciousness. We reflect, we analyze, and we place great respect and responsibility in listening. Such systems, like the collective mind are too large to create change or heal without feedback from individuals. Too large to see itself, it is up to us to be the eyes and ears of the collective, not to be endlessly subjected to a system left alone to its own devices. The collective mind relies on our reflection. By listening and acting with awareness, we help steer it toward growth. This writing is a call for help, like I called for help for that patient, in what ways can you help with your awareness?
Here is the point of all points, and this is where I will leave you, we cannot confuse something profoundly human like the collective mind, with God. We must take responsibility for ourselves, who we are, and where we are. The parental nesting doll that is God is outside of our selves, and that parental figure is praying their children figure this out. Someday we won’t be children anymore and we will claim responsibility for our own actions and our own navigation forward.